For some, pesticides more problematic than mosquitoes

It's around this time every year that the Bristol County Mosquito Control Project gets busy, following the first positive detection of EEE or West Nile Virus in a mosquito.

ARIEL WITTENBERG

NEW BEDFORD — It's around this time every year that the Bristol County Mosquito Control Project gets busy, following the first positive detection of EEE or West Nile Virus in a mosquito.

But what may seem like a routine practice is actually quite concerning to SouthCoast's chemical-free and organic farmers who say the pesticides are more problematic than insects they aim to kill.

"I think we tend to go overboard with the chemicals," said Tish Ciccotelli, who owns the chemical-free Engelnook farm in Rochester.

She said bats and dragonflies act as a "natural way of taking care of mosquitoes" and that she believes it is "healthier for everybody" to not use pesticides.

For years, the Bristol County Mosquito Control Project had used a pesticide called Anvil to kill mosquitoes. That pesticide's active ingredient is sumithrin, a synthetic chemical that was manufactured to mimic a naturally occurring one found in chrysanthemums that kills mosquitoes. This year, Bristol County switched to a new chemical called Duet, which also contains sumithrin, but also has a chemical called prallethrin.

That extra chemical is meant to help attract mosquitoes to the toxin, making them more active so they fly more through the pesticide, which is released as a mist from trucks.

"It's like putting a smelling salt under someone's nose," Bristol County Mosquito Control Superintendent Jennifer Dacey said. "It wakes them up so they fly around more."

Still, Ciccotelli said she questions the effectiveness of spraying for combating mosquito-borne diseases.

"My worry is you are not going to get every mosquito, so you can still have the diseases going around, but you will be damaging the environment in the process," she said. "Mosquitoes are everywhere. Spraying is a Band-aid, not a fix."

Annie Rockwell of Parlow Mill Farm in Marion agreed. She said that while she does not have a problem with mosquito dunks, which use bacteria to kill mosquito eggs while they are still in water, she does not like the synthetic chemicals used to kill adult mosquitoes.

"Adulticide is the bad stuff," she said. "In the end it's a toxic chemical."

Dacey said that in Bristol County, controls are put in place to minimize the pesticide's effect on other animals and insects.

Duet, which has been approved by the EPA, can be harmful to humans and animals if it is swallowed, according to the manufacturer's website. Clothing contaminated with the chemical should be washed immediately because it could cause rash or asthma-like reactions. The chemical is also "highly toxic" to aquatic organisms including fish, according to the company.

But Dacey said the chemical does not get into water because it is only sprayed from trucks on the street. She also said Bristol only sprays between 2 a.m. and sunrise in order to avoid poisoning pollinators like honeybees.

Duet, the new chemical being used, is sprayed in a mist that dissipates within 30 minutes and is gone from the environment within 24 hours, Dacey said.

"It's not like a pest control chemical they spray around your house that's good for 30 to 60 days," she said.

Dacey said humans who are worried about the effects of the chemical could close their windows at times when their street is being sprayed. She said people should be more worried about the diseases mosquitoes carry than the sprays used to kill them.

"Bristol County is known for EEE and West Nile," she said. "You have to weigh the consequences of people getting those viruses versus this targeted spraying."